


'Til the End of the Line

by SherlockianGirl14



Category: captain america: the winter soldier - Fandom
Genre: Angst (at the start), Best Friends, Fluff, Nightmares, Post-Winter Soldier, Stucky (can be interpreted), laughing, regained memory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-16
Packaged: 2018-01-19 16:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1475839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockianGirl14/pseuds/SherlockianGirl14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It's okay, Bucky,” Steve repeated softly, and Bucky let out one last shaky breath that he hadn't apprised that he was holding. “I'm with you.”<br/>“'Til the end of the line?” Bucky asked, tiredly, his lips curving upwards in a sleepy smile.<br/>“'Til the end of the line, Buck,” Steve chuckled. “I'm with you 'til the end of the line.”<br/>They paused for a moment, staring at each other as they fully realised for the first time quite all that that line meant to the two of them and how many times they had said it to each other in the past. It was just... their thing, and they'd never realised how important those words were to them.</p><p>In which Bucky has a nightmare (again) and Steve goes to comfort him</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Til the End of the Line

_The pain of acceptance. The metal in his mouth that he bit down on as the clamps closed around him. His bare chest heaving. The metal of his arm hanging heavy. He had remembered, he knew he had, he knew this man! I tried to stop them. But I couldn't. I couldn't move. I was bound to the wall and gagged. And now he was being punished for remembering, for not complying with simple orders. But... He knew him. This... Captain America. He knew him. He_ knew  _him! He-_

_He must kill the S.H.I.E.L.D agent who goes by Captain America. His mission is to kill him. Pierce would brief him on his plan of attack when he returned to the base. That was what the agents around him said._

“ _I will kill Agent Steven Rogers,” the man said dully, mechanically. The others in the room nodded, satisfied, and left._

 

Bucky woke up, his chest heaving as though he was back there again. His breath came in short gasps that weren't enough, not enough, he couldn't breathe. His body was coated in a slick layer of sweat. He shook all over, his body spasming. He was crying, had woken up crying.

For a couple of moments, he couldn't remember. He couldn't remember where he was or who he knew and for a fleeting moment, his mission was the only thought on his mind and he felt like The Winter Soldier again.

But then he remembered. _Steve._ This was Steve's flat. His friend, Steve. Steve Rogers. Captain America. His best friend. He, James Buchanan Barnes. He, Bucky.

They'd said this would be a side affect. The forgetting, at times, for a few seconds tops. They hadn't mentioned remembering The Winter Soldier.

But then, they hadn't mentioned the dreams, either.

“Steve?” Bucky called once, rather quietly, and waited for a response. He remembered that in the war, Steve had been borderline insomniac and an incredibly light sleeper. But then he recalled that, since Steve had been injected with the serum that made him into the Super Soldier Captain America, his sleeping patterns were far more regular and he was significantly more difficult to rouse from his slumber. “ _Steve!”_

His voice must have sounded desperate, because he heard his best-friend-and-new-flatmate scrambling out of bed and, within a matter of seconds, the other man was flinging open his bedroom door.

“Bucky. It's okay bud. It's okay. It was just a dream, Buck,” Steve muttered, sitting on the side of the bed as Bucky shifted over to accommodate him. His breath was still uneven and he could tell he was still palpitating. But Steve was here and that meant he was awake now. It rarely came back to him when he was awake, and even then only when he was alone.

“Steve...” he muttered, both sounding and feeling as though he had just run a marathon, and yet at the same time starting slowly to feel better.

“Do you wanna.. Talk about it?” Steve asked, nervous yet gentle, caring. Bucky's nightmares were slowly getting less frequent, but Steve was still fast becoming an expert at handling him like this. Bucky's response to Steve's question would vary depending on the intensity of the dream- if it wasn't too bad, he could talk. Sometimes, on the worse nightmares, he'd be able to talk about it the next morning, but usually he kept it to himself. Once or twice, he'd written it down.

“Yeah,” Bucky replied quietly. “I- uhm, I...”

“Whenever you're ready, Buck. You don't have to tell me.”

“Um.. I was back there. But.. I was watching myself. I- I'd started to remember you. When you said my name. Once. I started to get memories of you. Us together, during the war. And... They were talking to me, asking me for a mission report, and I didn't respond. It wasn't that I was being deliberately insolent... I just was so deep in my thought. And, the thing is, this did happen to me, when I was...” -he paused uncomfortably before proceeding- “But, this time I wasn't me. I was watching myself as though I was someone else in the room and I tried to move and I tried to scream at them to stop but I couldn't. And.. They took my memories back from me- the Winter Soldier me, I mean. Not the me watching them. I can remember how much it really hurt when they did it, and in the dream I was _watching_ that, Steve!”

“Oh, Bucky,” Steve sighed, pulling his friend's head partially onto his lap, stroking his hair as though he was a child. He could remember doing the same for Steve when they were kids (he could remember that stuff now, thank God), stroking his forehead like a baby when he'd been punched or kicked. Steve was actually a couple of years older, but until the serum, Bucky had always acted in charge. Steve had been the one who really knew best, though. “Oh, Bucky, it's alright. That's all over now. I promise you. The Avengers will stop them if they ever try to take you- we have a God from the realm of Asgard, remember?” Steve chuckled.

“Yeah, all that weird stuff. I remember. You lot of nutters fighting the world's wars against all evil,” Steve smiled weakly.

“When you're better they might even want you, y'know Buck,” Steve commented casually. “You're pretty damn strong now.”

“Hmm, maybe. We'll see. I think I'm done with being a soldier for a while, Stevie..” Bucky chuckled, using the nickname for his friend that he only ever said in this situation.

“It's okay, Bucky,” Steve repeated softly, and Bucky let out one last shaky breath that he hadn't apprised that he was holding. “I'm with you.”

“'Til the end of the line?” Bucky asked, tiredly, his lips curving upwards in a sleepy smile.

“'Til the end of the line, Buck,” Steve chuckled. “I'm with you 'til the end of the line.”

Their eyes drifted together naturally, both laughing now. They paused for a moment, staring at each other as they fully realised for the first time quite all that that line meant to the two of them and how many times they had said it to each other in the past. It was just... _their thing_ , and they'd never realised how important those words were to them.

Them suddenly, they were laughing again, ten times harder than before. Bucky sat up in bed, fully pushing off the covers that he'd half-kicked off in his frantic sleep. He noticed Steve slapping his knee with laughter. He'd always looked ridiculous when he'd done that pre-serum. Now, he looked pretty cool.

Bucky hadn't noticed he'd rolled over into Steve until they were both toppling onto the ground, breathlessly laughing like kids. He was pretty sure they'd at best woken up the neighbours three houses either side (at worst the whole street- no, the whole _city!)_ and he was almost certain he'd seem a light flick on before he'd fallen out of bed.

They both arranged themselves into an upright position, leaning against the bed lazily like teenagers now. Steve had just gotten control of his laughter when Bucky glanced at him, raising an eyebrow, setting them both off again.

When they had both of them finally stopped laughing, Steve said something he hadn't once said to Bucky before. It wasn't that he hadn't been thinking it, Bucky was sure, but probably that he didn't want to upset his friend.

“It's good to have you back again, pal.”

“Sorry I made you wait seventy years, Captain,” Bucky said, only half-joking.

“And don't you ever do that to me again,” Steve said, his voice suddenly thick with emotion.

“Wouldn't dream of it.”

“'Til the end of the line,” Steve said, and his best friend echoed him.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! Please feel free to leave a comment or kudos, and crit is always welcome (as long as it's constructive!) :3


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